


hot springs (run red)

by blue_slate



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Unbeta'd we die like women, im lazy and could've written more but didn't feel like it, somehow Ellie has more bde than abby in this one wtf, this is more a drabble, welcome back to the Joel Got Fuckin DECKED Universe!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25245319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_slate/pseuds/blue_slate
Summary: a peaceful moment alone at the hot springs is interrupted by the last person abby wants to see. it turns out better than she thought it would.ORthe "we're not sitting five feet apart and we ARE gay" hot springs apocalypse drabble"
Relationships: Abby/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 128





	hot springs (run red)

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd. if you have any prompts, drop them in my inbox on my Tumblr, @slate-blue. enjoy, heathens

This might be the only place that Abby feels like she can relax. 

Being on her guard every hour of every day while she’s inside the walls of Jackson has taken more of a toll on her than she thought it would. Of course, that’s to be expected when she punched the community’s unofficial leader in the face. Honestly, she’s surprised she hasn’t been put on a log and burned at the stake for what she did. 

Abby rolls her shoulders, groaning as she digs her fingers into the stiff muscle of her shoulder. The water of the hot springs gives her a pleasant tingle in her sore muscles— Maria has her doing farm labor or getting wood from the forests. The constant lifting and pushing has left her aching. 

But, she won’t complain, because it’s better than being dead. 

Abby sighs, dipping her head forward into the water and running her palms over her face. At least here, she has some semblance of peace and she can forget about the target stamped onto her back by Tommy. 

Tommy fuckin’ Miller. 

Abby almost wishes she had punched him instead. 

Chuckling to herself, Abby shifts on the stone bench in the hot springs, eroded by years of wear. Briefly, she wonders if anyone else in Jackson knows about the hot springs not even that far away. There has to be someone else, right? There’s no way that Abby, a newcomer, is the only one who knows about it. 

If she is, then Abby is grateful. This is a temporary escape to the strange hellscape that is her life. Don’t get her wrong, she’s grateful for Maria protecting her from Tommy’s wrath and Joel’s forgiveness, but it’ll take a while to erase the vendetta that Tommy has against her. 

Not to mention the wariness everyone treats her with. Wherever Abby walks, people move away like she’s plagued. Some people stare at her with hatred that Abby only sees with the infected. 

She could be dead. Abby prefers being hated over being dead. 

Abby’s ears perk to a noise that comes from the bristling bushes, and then there’s the sound of footsteps. She lowers herself in the hot springs, readying herself for a possible attack against an unseen assailant. 

“God, fuck, these  _ bushes,  _ fucking christ.” A voice, slow in cadence but higher in pitch, drifts from the trees. Abby’s brow crooks, watching with caution as a figure emerges from the underbrush. 

It’s Ellie, Joel’s adopted daughter. She’s wacking a machete and cutting down bushes as she walks, clearing a path. Abby relaxes, but not by much— Ellie’s armed, and she could easily lodge that machete in Abby’s skull if she were so inclined to do so. 

Ellie pauses in her steps, her eyes on Abby. “Oh. I didn’t think someone would be here.” 

Abby pulls herself out of the hot springs, inhaling the air as she returns to her original spot. “Neither did I.” 

In one smooth movement, Ellie slides her machete into her backpack before dropping the sack to the ground. Abby soon turns her head away when Ellie moves to take her shirt off. Abby’s cheeks burn, for some odd reason. 

Ellie does an unceremonious jump into the hot springs, and Abby just spreads her arms on the back of the hot springs before watching Ellie resurface from the milky waters. 

Thank god for the full moon— otherwise, Abby wouldn’t be able to see shit. Nor would she be able to see Ellie stand up in the hot springs and slick her reddish hair back. Abby grits her teeth, holding back her questions. She doesn’t need to talk to Ellie if Ellie isn’t gonna talk to her. 

That plan goes haywire the moment Ellie asks, “How’d you find out about this place?” 

Abby clears her throat, tracing the surface of the water with her finger. “Got sent out to collect more wood and check the perimeter. Found this place after stumbling around in the snow.” 

Ellie hums, before flicking some water towards a floating leaf. “Dina showed me this place.” 

_ Great. Now I have to talk to her.  _ “Your girlfriend?” 

Ellie looks at her.  _ Truly _ looks at her. “Not anymore. She and I decided to stay friends.” 

Abby thinks of the event that was only just last night, where Ellie and Dina were wrapped up in each other's arms on the dance floor. Personally, Abby had spent the entirety of that event in the corner drowning herself in her miseries and a glass of whiskey. 

What could’ve happened that changed everything so suddenly?

Abby chooses to stay silent, focusing on the near scalding heat of the hot springs. Even as winter comes to a close and springs peeks around the corner, Abby finds the warmth of the water to be quite relaxing. 

Despite her alone time being interrupted, Abby mentally declines to waste her energy even thinking about Ellie. She won’t let herself. 

But then out of the corner of her eye, Ellie is stretching her arms above her head, and Abby can’t help but trace the line of Ellie's collarbone with her eyes. Her gaze drifts to the tattoo, shining dark in the silver moonlight. 

Abby can’t help herself. 

“What happened?” 

“I…” Ellie trails off, looking lost for words. She looks at Abby, her gaze hardening. “Why do you want to know?” 

Abby swallows. Why  _ does _ she want to know? “I figure if I’m stuck here, I might as well try making friends.”

“I don’t know what kind of friends you had before, but you don’t punch people in the face when you meet them for the first time.” Ellie’s voice is so dry that even Abby has a hard time swallowing her words down. 

“I apologized.” 

“Your apology means shit to me,” Ellie says, rolling her eyes. In a snap, Ellie had gone from peacefully unbothered to a cauldron of simmering rage, and Abby would hate to burn in the flames of Ellie’s anger. “You hurt Joel.” 

“Do you even know why I did?” Abby bites back, and Ellie glares at her. 

“Because he stopped the Fireflies from making the cure. You’re a Firefly. I know why, Abby.” 

Abby chuckles, and Ellie’s eyes flare with anger. Abby shakes her head, responding, “I care fuck all about being a Firefly now, Ellie. I did it because Joel killed the man who was supposed to get the vaccine out of you. He  _ shot _ and  _ killed _ my father, Ellie.” 

The realization comes slowly over Ellie. Abby scoffs and turns away; the  _ gall _ on Ellie to assume she knew the reason. To assume she knew why Abby’s fuse burned long until she finally exploded. 

Maybe that fuse that burned inside Abby for so, so long is finally gone. Maybe it’s back, only waiting for the flint and steel that will strike a spark and set her alight once more. 

“I didn’t know.” 

“You didn’t because you didn’t fucking bother to  _ ask, _ ” Abby bites. “Do you know what it’s like to look at you and see my father? See a future that could’ve been?” 

Ellie stares back at her, steely ire burning in her eyes. Quietly, she whispers, “I  _ know _ my death could’ve meant something, and the fact that it didn’t kills me every single fucking day, Abby.” 

A pregnant pause stretches on, neither of them wanting to talk next. Ellie pulls her legs up to her chest, arms wrapping around her shins and her head tucking in the gap between her knees. Abby shifts in the hot springs, sinking down further into the water. 

_ Fuck _ , why is Ellie so fucking annoying? 

Abby cracks her neck to the side. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Abby nearly gets whiplash. 

Ellie swallows, before sighing. “I’m sorry that Joel killed your dad.” 

“It’s not for you to apologize for Joel’s actions,” Abby says, before shrugging her shoulders. “He apologized. I punched him in the face. I think we’re alright now.” 

Somehow, that gets a laugh out of Ellie. “I’m just glad you didn’t kill him.” 

“I almost did,” Abby remarks, prompting an eyebrow raise from Ellie. Abby clears her throat. “I was going to. Then, I realized that if I killed him, then the cycle of revenge would never end. Tommy would’ve come after me. If he killed me, then my friends would’ve gone after him. Where does the cycle end with that?” 

A ghost of a smile passes across Ellie’s face, and she nods her head. “The line has to be drawn somewhere.” 

“Indeed.” 

Some more silencer, but this isn’t filled with tense hatred. It’s more… reconciliation. Abby had never talked much with Ellie before this. If at all, really. She steered clear of everyone who meant something to Joel— a wise decision, considering Tommy had her knifepoint just a few days ago before Maria pulled him away. 

Tommy doesn’t scare Abby much. Sure, he can snipe infected down with ease and ride a wild stallion without being bucked off, but what is he going to do against Abby, who has military training and can squat twice his weight without blinking? 

It’s Ellie who terrifies Abby. Ellie, the unassuming, small redhead with a disguised bite mark on her forearm and tiny scars all over her skin. And no matter how small those scars might be, they all tell a story of survival. Not even Abby thinks she has that many. 

And there’s an underlying sense of  _ something _ in Ellie’s eyes, something that screams a thirst for blood. Whenever Abby looks into Ellie’s eyes, she finds herself horrified by what the redhead could possibly do. 

Them being alone could make it so much easier for Ellie to simply slit Abby’s throat open and make the hot springs run red with blood. Abby briefly imagines her body being left here to float, and she thinks that this might be the best place to die. At least she’ll be warm and not freezing cold. 

What does Ellie think when she looks at Abby? Does she see someone who wanted revenge, or someone hurt by years of grief and pain?

“Ellie,” Abby says, her voice barely above a whisper. Ellie looks at her, tilting her head to the side. “What do you see?” 

Ellie blinks, her eyebrow twitching slightly. Her mouth opens, then she shuts it, the gears in her head grinding as she processes the question. Then, quietly, she responds, “I see someone tortured by vengeance and rescued by forgiveness.” 

Abby goes breathless. 

She doesn’t even notice the water shifting as Ellie swims closer, until Ellie’s hands are on her knees and she’s only a foot away. 

“I see someone who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders like Atlas did with the sky,” Ellie whispers, her head coming closer. “I see you.” 

_ I see you _ rings over and over in Abby’s head like a broken church bell. 

“Why do you see me?” Abby murmurs, and Ellie just smiles softly. 

“Because I want to see you.” 

Ellie closes the gap between them, her lips sealing tight on Abby’s. If it weren’t for Abby’s natural response to shock, she’d look like a deer caught in a flashlight. By instinct, Abby’s hands press Ellie away, maybe a little too harshly, if Ellie’s hurt expression is anything to go by. 

“Why…?” Abby trails off, her chest rising and falling with anxious breaths, her heart hammering harder than it ever has before. Ellie’s face crumples, and she moves away. 

Time seems to stop as Abby’s mind goes on a brutal rampage of  _ why _ and  _ why Ellie  _ and  _ Why does Ellie make her feel like this?  _

There’s no time to dwell. Abby surges forward, her hands grabbing Ellie’s face and bringing her forward. The water sloshes around them as Ellie palms the muscle on Abby’s sides, pulling her close. Ellie’s lips are hot and slick with the salty tang of the hot springs, and Abby finds it more addicting than anything she’s ever known. 

Her fingers scratching the sharp bone of Ellie’s jaw, eliciting a soft moan that Abby feels on her lips down to her core. Their kiss is sloppy and heady and full of unbridled passion, and Abby finds herself drowning in the molten silver of Ellie’s tongue. 

Ellie’s skin is wet with the water of the hot springs, and Abby thinks about how the hot springs would run silver with their ardor instead of red with Abby’s blood. 

Abby pulls away, Ellie’s breath hot on her lips. Quietly, she asks, “Want to take this back to my room?” 

Ellie cocks a grin. “Who says we can’t continue right here?” 

Abby scoffs, before dipping her head down to kiss Ellie and letting herself be consumed whole. 

  
  



End file.
